Is Sri Lanka's Hambanthota harbour becoming a worthy investment

Sri Lanka government seems succeeded finally in making its white elephant Hambanthota Port a worthy place where business occurs.

The port is a massive corruption which swallowed public money due to craze of politicians who filled in it with water before the completion of blasting rock at the mouth of the harbour cut into the land. The pit was filled in with water to mark the President's birthday and later a sum similar to around a fourth of the entire cost for the construction was spent in addition to blast the rocks. Waste of public money borrowed mortgaging generations of people of the country. Anyhow, it is good to see the crazy harbour becomes a worthy place.

Ports Authority (SLPA) announced that the import and transshipping operations of vehicles will begin at Hambanthota Mahinda Rajapaksa Port today. The ship Fricia is to arrive in Hambanthota harbour today with 15 vehicles, says Ports Authority.

Another ship will arrive in Hambanthota harbor with 1000 vehicles from Chennai and the vehicles are to be transshipped to Algeria. The ship with vehicles bound Algeria will leave harbor on June 15. The government decided to divert all vehicle shipments to the southern harbor to ease the heavy traffic congestion in Colombo harbour.

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Sri Lanka government's desperate attempt to make Hambanthota something give further pain to people

A costly (day) dream

Sri Lanka government is in a desperate attempt to make Hambanthota Mahinda Rajapaksa port a useful venture.  Since no ships are coming there, the government has decided to divert vehicle transport ships there. 


Associated Motor Ways (AMW) company, the agents of a range of light vehicles including Japanese Suzuki and Indian Maruti, says that the price of the motor vehicles will further go up with the government decision to shift disembarkation of motor vehicles to Hambanthota since May 31.

A company spokesman said that car careers will be used to transport motor vehicles to Colombo for the distribution and one career can carry only six cars. If they have a showroom and workshop there, the price of a car will be Rs. 25,000 less there. 


Perhaps, some day the local vehicle business centre might move to Hambanthota. Now, its mostly in Colombo, Kurunegala and Kandy, I think. But god knows if people will like to travel all the way close to Down Under to see vehicles. Yet, David Peiris has already shifted Bajaj assembly plants to Hambanthota. 


You can't make Hambanthota everything. But it needs to be made something. Unless the massive public money spent on it will go berserk. 

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Sri Lankan officials following 'innovative' tactics to convert Hambanthota a harbour

Sri Lanka now has a new harbor though no ships go there even an year after its grand opening. Harbor mouth was blocked by a rock. A large sum of borrowed foreign currency was spent to break the rock. It could be removed at a lower cost before hurriedly filling in water.

After all, the port is ready now. However, 'innovative' thinking is needed to lure ships there.

Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) says now that it will permit car importers to unload their cargo only in the Hambantota Port from March 2012.

Sources say that this measure will be followed due to Colombo Port is highly congested, since it has less parking facilities after the ongoing expansion of roads and due to less port terminals.

There is no space for parking and the car carriers have to wait for nearly five to six days to clear their cargo before leaving the area, says Ports Authority Chairman.

However, if the dealers want their cars to be shipped to the Colombo Port they have to arrange for ‘direct delivery’ and have the preliminary inspection at their own yard and not at the port, according to the Chairman of the Ports Authority.

Sri Lanka's vehicle business is centered in Colombo, Kandy and Kurunegala. Therefore the imported vehicles will have to go a long way to reach the market. Perhaps the government wants to shift the market also to Hambanthota. It will affect Kurunegala. Who cares Kurunegala now? Now it is Hambanthota time.

The imported vehicles will also add into the traffic of the newly built Southern Expressway.

This is the 'development' the government is giving us. Who benefits from it? Definitely not the poor masses of whose name the massive loans are being obtained.

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Yes, there is rock at the mouth of Sri Lanka's new harbor

After so many denials locally, Sri Lanka government has internationally assumed that a massive rock is blocking the entrance of the newly built Hambanthota harbor.

After spending 1.4 billion  borrowed US dollars to build the harbor and an year after all ceremonies to declare open the harbor, the government has now sought another loan of US dollars 40 million from China to blast the rock.

Here is the Reuters report:

Sri Lanka seeks $40m. Chinese loan for port rock removal
Wednesday , 24 August 2011

Sri Lanka’s Port Authority on Tuesday said it has asked China for $40 million loan to demolish a massive seabed rock obstructing the entrance of its new $1.4 billion Hambantota port, due to start commercial operations this year.

The island nation launched the port in August 2010 with an initial target of handling 2,500 ships annually, as a cornerstone of a $6 billion drive to rebuild infrastructure that was neglected during a 25-year civil war.

But large ships are yet to call on the port and the country’s main opposition United National Party (UNP) has pointed to the rock as a sign of government mismanagement.

Although the port is in President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s home district in southern Sri Lanka, along the ancient "Silk Route" trading path, the rival UNP first proposed it.

"This rock was identified before we started the port construction," Sri Lanka Ports Authority Chairman Priyath Wickrama told Reuters. "We need just below $40 million to blast it. We have requested the amount from China."

Sri Lanka is banking on the port to help fuel growth targets of 8-9 percent in its $50 billion economy.

It has increasingly been relying on China, Russia, India and to a lesser degree, Brazil, for the financing and expertise required for its post-war rebuilding plans.

Beijing on commercial terms loaned a combined $1.24 billion to build the port and a 4 million metric tonne fuel bunkering facility, all of it built by Chinese engineers -- much to the chagrin of neighbouring India.

Hambantota is about 2 km from one of the world’s biggest east-west shipping lanes, and is bidding to host the 2018 Commonwealth Games. The government is building Sri Lanka’’s second international airport there, and a master-planned city.

"Normally ships don’’t call at once. They need time to study business opportunities," Wickrama said. "We have to develop secondary facilities at the port and once we have them along with bunkering facilities, we can get ships to Hambantota."

In June, Wickrama said the ports authority had secured around $1 billion in investment into port facilities, including warehousing.

The fuel bunkering terminal is expected to start operations next month, four months behind schedule.

-Reuters-

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